Convergence of Fate

Sybil's Squad

The dock was not empty when The Escape sailed into Carleon. The captured Castillian Barque had not been challenged when she came into the harbor — while she did fly the Avalonian flag, she was obviously of Castillian design, and a warship. Her Captain Sean MacEarly O’Brian, expected to have to explain himself to some wary soldiers, or at the very least a dock master, but no such men awaited at the dock. Instead, amoung a mess of barrels, crates and other supplies, stood a woman with a small entourage of eclectically dressed men.

The gangplank had barely been lowered when the woman stepped on board. She identified herself as Sybil and asked to speak privately with Sean. 10 minutes later she emerged from his cabin, and Sean ordered his crew to begin loading the supplies on the dock. Sybil invited her companions to board the ship and introduced them as Hendrik van der Vos a young man from Vendel, Dietrich an Eisen noble and his man-at-arms Thomas the Hawk an Avalonian, and lastly Ecuyer Pierre Prasse du Rachetisse young Montagine Noble. As Sybil was departing the ship, she caught sight of Agustin de la Torre and paused, seeming to recognize him. “Of course you’re here” she said… then departed.

Each for their own reasons was helping Sybil find some missing scholars in Carouse… well each except Agustin, who’d only just met her. The party spoke of their goal, but not their reasons.

They left port for Montaigne the following morning, Agustin rushing to meet the ship, having apparently spent the night in the tavern with Sybil. While the crew had been loading ship the day before Sean had recruited some Avalon sailors and this the ship was full of new faces. Some of the new faces… Dietrich didn’t care for the notion of helping to sail the ship. Sean explained to that this was an Avalon ship and Avalon treated it’s sailors as Nobility, so his blood meant nothing on this ship. Dietrich acquiesced and joined in with the crew, the only one to not carry his load was Chris K, who maintained the Montaigne Noble stereo-type of being useless.

That afternoon the Escape encountered a pirate ship at sea. The ship appeared to be hostile, but when the crew was recognized to be Avalonian they didn’t attack. The Sea Dog pirates are mostly Avalonians, and they don’t target their own.

The ship reached the small port town Cruix in Montaigne a few days later. The party’s rowboat was met at the docks by one of Sybil’s contacts, a Minister of the church. He let the party know that Cruix had been hit by a plague (not the White Plague). He also offered transportation and a cover to get into Carouse. The party put to the road on two wagons.

A few days into their travel, the party was accosted by bandits in the night. After defeating them they interrogated their leader, who turned out to be a minor noble from the small town of Lierre Vallee. He’d turned to banditry after Le Emperor had taxed his town into poverty. The party decided to spare him and give him a sizable purse of guilders to help his starving people. Thomas took his sword, marked with the symbol of the swordsman guild and said he’d only give it back if they noble had been true to his word to not attack passing merchants again. Hendrick chatted him up and made friends with the noble though the evening and the party set out the next day.

When the party finally arrived at Charouse they found a line at the gated city. All goods were being inspected before entering the city, and a ‘tax’ had to be paid. Pierre made use of his Noble Montaigne blood and got the party in the gates, they then went to a small home his family maintained in the city.

After setting up the party went to home of The Cheville de Arnauld, where Sybil had said a contact might help the party find the scholars. They encountered the lady of the house and Dietrich made an impression, offering to play her piano. They also spoke with her Valet Charles, the contact and found out where the scholars where staying and where they’d been doing research… they’d been missing for about 6 weeks.

The party (sans Agustin) headed to the homes the scholars were renting and, after paying their late rent, gained access. Inside they found 2 scrolls hidden written in a language or code they couldn’t decipher. They also noted that the clothes didn’t seem to fit a man’s frame and made the deduction that the scholars were all women.

By the time they’d searched the 4 homes, it was well into the evening. Chris K went home and the rest of the party followed Sean’s lead and they found a Avalonian themed pub. They shared some of their stories with each-other (including how Sean came to be at the helm of The Escape) and with a Drunken passerby named George. he muttered something oddly cryptic to the effect of “count the beggars.”

The party was headed back to the Rachetisse Manor when they encountered the Laurent Courbe the Steward of the house, who was apparently out looking for them. It seemed odd that he’d be out and find them, and Sean sensed that he wasn’t the pleasantest of sorts, but he escorted them home without incident.

They slept, planning to visit the university where the Scholars were doing their research the following day.

Session 2

The party were each individually woken by Pierre’s steward Laurent Courbe, having spent the night in the Manor. He critiqued everyone’s clothing (regardless of the quality), and offered tailoring services.

The party met for breakfast and planning. While food was being served, Sean’s crew member “Big” Thom Flint showed up in a courier’s uniform that was way too small for him. Pierre, seeing this, had his steward measure Thom for more suitable clothes. Sean observed the Steward planting something on Thom. The ‘something’ turned out to be a small stone pin, about 3 inches long. It glowed when certain people held it, green(blue?) for Sean, red for Pierre, purple for Thom’s mechanical Syrenth hand, dimly gray for Dietrich, and brighter gray when touching his Dracheneisen. The party deduced that it must be tied to Sorcery. Dietrich insisted that he be allowed to perform a private experiment and went upstairs with the pin. When he came back down it had grown larger… and he had nothing to report. Pierre then blooded the object which permanently turned it red and caused Pierre to suffer a dramatic wound. Hendrick then took the pin and put it into one of his many pockets.

When they went looking for the man who planted the pin, they found he’d departed the manor house, not telling anyone where he’d gone. Pierre ordered the rest of his servants to look for him and, if found, prevent him from leaving again. Confused but undeterred, the party headed to the university library.

When they arrived at the library, the librarian made them wipe their feet before they got too far in. They asked him some questions about the four researchers who disappeared, as well as what they were reading, and who else has read those things since they disappeared. He dithered some and finally revealed that the Emperor’s Scholar, Micheal, had came by and looked at what the researchers did. The last names of both the librarian and Micheal were the same, making the party believe they were related. They got a private room and asked the librarian to send them
the material the researchers looked at. The first scroll the party got was a contract between the Roman Senators and the Syrenth. Most of it was common knowledge, but there were two names, name1name2 that were also in the contract, and nobody recognized. They later found out that one of those names was in fact a noble line that went extinct.

Sean advised caution. He recounted the history of the contract: The Senators, having lost power to the Emperor had signed a contract with the powerful, and presumed extinct, beings the Syrenth, a contract that had granted them Sorcery. Sean then told the party that the Syrenth were, in-fact not extinct, and that that contract, and many other actions they’d taken in the interim were intended to help them escape imprisonment and return to the world… and that return would spell the end of it. The notion that the Syrenth were not extinct, and plotting to destroy the world was news to everyone… and possibly even left some wondering if Sean spent too much time at sea….

After about 9 hours of study, they decided to leave the library to get dinner and rest. On the way back, some members of the party realized they were being followed by Imperial Musketeers. Pierre confronted them and the party was told that they were under arrest by orders of the Emperor. One of the musketeers told them they were criminals and Deitrich demanded a duel for the slight against his honor. The captain, Charles of Burgandy, who had a silver guild pin, faced him and won handily. Feeling confident, and Montaigne, he asked if anyone else would like to duel him. Sean accepted and got him to allow magic. Sean barely won and captain let us go.

When they reached Pierre’s home, a maid came and told the party that the steward we were looking for this morning was there. They rushed to where the maid said he was and found him dead. His throat was slit. When the party went outside to ask the musketeers if they saw anything, they were found to have just recently relieved the last guards. They asked who was guarding before hand and got some names, so we ask for their superior. After the guard checked the body, and found a mark of a snake on his chest, we left for the musketeers closest barracks.

The captain at the barracks was in fact the same person who tried to arrest them less than an hour ago. After some talking, yelling, threatening, pleading, and Deitrich finding a serpent ring on his finger matching the serpent carved into the Steward’s chest, they found out that he works for a Dame Serpente, whom he loves. She apparently didn’t like the fact the party is in Charouse and wishes to have us killed. The captain was trying to arrest them so he could get the party out of the city and away from danger due to a debt he owed Pierre’s family. As they were leaving, he tried to kill himself and Hendrick stopped him by throwing a dagger and pinning his hand to the back of his chair. A few members of the party tried to get him to stop killing himself until Pierre finally convinced him by suggesting that he destroy the corruption in the Musketeers until he was killed himself.

After that they left and went to Pierre’s Manor. The party wanted to confront the Dame Serpente and went to what they believed was her whereabouts. The place was Pierre’s Mother’s Cousin’s Manor. When they arrived, the party was told to wait and they did for about ten minutes. After that length of time, Sean got impatient and with the help of Big Thom, barged in on Pierre’s cousin and her Husband, Lady and Lord Caplet having dinner (but no [[:Dame Serpente]]). They where unhelpful and evasive when asked about the Lady. After noticing that this man too wore a Serpent ring, Sean finally pried his tongue loose by unleashing a barrage of insults, imply that Big Thom was there to ‘serve’ the Lady, and he could ‘serve’ the man too, though Sean doubted he could handle “Little Thom”. They learned that the ring was a symbol of his love for Lady Serpent. The party also learned that the Lady is staying somewhere else and they needed to go through the sewers to get to her, and also that she uses an unknown type of magic that causes metal to become extremely hot. While Sean’s insults had helped get the party information, they’d also gotten Sean a duel to the death for noon the following day.

Into the Sewers

The session starts right after the party leaves “some Lords house”. Pierre confronts Sean about his abuse of the Lords hospitality and impingement of Pierre’s honor as a result. Pierre admits that the Lord needs to die, but to get some of his honor back, he will apologize to the Lord in public before the duel and convince him that he should show no mercy to Sean. Pierre tells the party of his plans so they don’t get the wrong idea when they hear the apology in a few days.

After the small confrontation, the party heads to a medic to get their wounds tended to. Pierre pays upfront for everyone. Sean and Dietrich get patched up normally but Pierre gets a potion to heal the magic inflicted wounds he has. While browsing the potion room(closet), Hendrick buys a glowing potion from the medic that is made from fire flies. The medic admits that he doesn’t know what it would do when ingested. Before they leave, the medic advises that Pierre should eat a lot with the potion and Pierre, suddenly feeling really hungry, declares he is going home to eat. He is soon convinced to go to a nearby restaurant since it is closer.

Upon entering the restaurant, Pierre is extravagantly greeted by the maitre d’ by his family name of Prasse du Rachatisse. The party is taken to their table and notice that almost everyone else has a red armband. The party is slightly on their guard, but when the first course arrives, they relax a bit. While eating, a Lady comes up to Pierre and asks that he join her for lunch in four days. Pierre makes no promises, but says he will try to make it if he can. Later, another woman comes, who was recently widowed, and wishes Pierre to join her as well as her manor. Again Pierre makes no promises, but says that he should arrive in 3 days for brunch. After about an hour of eating, the party tries to leave, but the maitre d’ is really pushy in keeping them from leaving and so the party stays for another hour before leaving.

When they reach the entrance of the sewers, the party finds that Thom is too big to fit through the grate and so the party leaves him behind. The smell is horrible in there, but even so, Pierre smells the perfume of someone following us. Pierre identifies it as the perfume Lady Serpent wore when they last met. The party plans an ambush. Hendrick stands on the other side of the sewer and gets stealthy. Sean hides behind Hendrick. The rest move a little bit further and wait for their pursuer. Their follower was captured without trouble and happened to be a hobo with a fine cloak given to him by Lady Serpent. Sean and Dietrich successfully intimidate him and get enough information to bluff and tell the hobo that the Lady wishes to see them.

The hobo takes the party to a blank wall and does something to make the wall disappear and reveal a passage way. The hobo leads them to a room with about a dozen other hobos, all with fine cloaks. The lead hobo questions why they are hear and the party bluff a bit saying that Dietrich is the Lady’s new consort. The bluff fails and there is a fight. The hobos bring out strange looking guns that shoot lightning but the party is undeterred and defeats them soundly. They hear footsteps of reinforcements coming and Pierre yells “They are headed towards her Lady’s chambers!”

Suddenly, the altar in the middle of the room opens and out steps Lady Serpent. She quickly knocks out Hendrick and unleashes and terrifying aura that causes Pierre and Dietrich to freeze in terror. Then, using some type of magic, ensnared the minds of the two people cowering. She ordered them to subdue their compatriots and they did so without hesitation.

Thomas attacks Lady Serpent right away and she takes quite a few wounds; Thomas then parries an energy blast that causes his blade to become red hot. Sean and Dietrich duke it out with their fists while Pierre summoned a portal and took Thomas’s weapon which had been blooded a few hours earlier. Lady Serpent grabs Thomas and throws him into Sean and Dietrich causing them all to fall down. Hendrick woke up then and slowly got to his feet, but was attacked by one of the minions that had entered the room during the fight. During this time, Sean has been trying to snap his friend out of it and it finally works letting Dietrich to regain control of his mind. Lady Serpent ordered all her minions to kneel before her and all the minions as well as Pierre did so. Dietrich stood up dramatically and said “something” and then attacked Lady Serpent. Meanwhile, as Pierre knelled before Lady Serpent, he got his wits and mustered up the will to resist The lady’s orders. Sean decided to fight the steward with his bare hands in order to get a sword from him. Suddenly, Pierre stood up and got between Dietrich and Lady Serpent, faced Dietrich, raised his sword and stabbed Lady Serpent through his armpit.

The Lady had enough and summoned some rings and in a flash a white, she, as well as Pierre, Dietrich, and the Lady’s steward, were transported somewhere else.

Hendrick, Sean and Thomas were surprised to be joined by felix-du-lierre-vallee and lady-anika, and a dozen wolves. They began to describe themselves as allies and how they came to be there, but their conversation was interrupted by the sound of fighting. The newly expanded party followed the continued sound of fighting deeper into the underground and found Dame Serpent and their allies battling in front of a strange altar and a giant vertically placed ring. Between blows Dame Serpent was ‘playing’ with the altar. Pierre deduced that she was up to something intentional and important so he decided to help her out and ‘played’ with the altar as well… this had the effect of spoiling whatever she had in mind and Dame Serpent, with a frustrated threat of days to come, summoned more rings and disappeared leaving the two groups in a huge room littered with bodies.

Deep in the underground pyramid the party of adventures found little solace in their victory. What had Dame Serpent been doing with that altar, and where had she retreated to? Her band of mindless minions had been defeated but would she return with reinforcements?

lady-anika sent a pair of her wolves, which by now most were assuming were shape-shifting Ussurans, up to the upper level to act as sentries, while she mulled over the cache of artifacts in the chamber. The walls of the large chamber were lined with strange urns, marked with sigils unknown to anyone present. Dietrich popped the wax seal on a jar, and was assaulted by a snake like thing that leaped out of it. With Thomas’s help they kill the murderous snake.

Sean, Thomas and Dietrich left the rest of the party to search the lower chamber while they headed up to search rooms passed in the rush to aid Dietrich and Pierre. Upstairs, they find a room filled with objects apparently taken off bodies. In a dank corner Dietrich found a bloody tabard bearing his family crest, which he thinks is his father’s, as well as a lone Dracheneisen boot. In the detritus Sean finds a couple of pistols and rearmed himself. More importantly, he spotted a satchel bearing a strange emblem, filled with vials of liquids, which he threw over his shoulder.

Meanwhile below, Hendrick and Pierre continued searching the large chamber. Hendrick grabbed a pair of the ‘lightening guns’ that Dame Serpent’s minions seemed to favor, as well as a longer one that was shaped more like a staff. Spread among the ceramic urns, Pierre found a number of urns that seemed to be composed of Dracheneisen. He pocketed one, while Hendrick grabbed one of each ceramic and Dracheneisen and tossed them in his backpack.

Having moved to the next room, Sean found the three missing researchers imprisoned alongside a gibbering madman. Sean spoke briefly and privately with the researchers, handing over the just found satchel, while Dietrich attempted to glean information from the nonsense coming from the man’s lips. The researchers had little to say except that Dame Serpent needed to be stopped, while the madman had little to say besides “bleh-boooo ber-gazib’ah”. It was all interrupted by a howl of warning that sent them all back downstairs.

Spotted by the wolves a large force of men who were only identifiable by red vests or armbands were heading down from the upper level; the beasts and men prepared for a fight.

The opening salvo was a group of three men who came downstairs with strange Syrnth artifacts on their back that functioned something akin to artifact vacuum cleaners. They also carried three wolves they’d captured upstairs. After a brief hostage standoff that resulted in two dead wolves they put their cleaning skills to work. A number of ‘lightening guns’ were sucked into the vacuum devices before the men fell.

Offers of parlay from upstairs slowed the battle such that grizzly-nasty-castillian was able to come down, along with his guards, and chat for a bit. He identified himself as a inquisitor and offered the ‘mercy’ the inquisition is known for. Such didn’t sit well with Lady Anika, and when his name was revealed her personal bear took over. Within seconds she’d grown hair, teeth and claws and Grizzly was beset on by a Grizzly bear (whom Pierre jumped on back of… apparently he has a thing for mounting bears.). Guards and Captain feel quickly but the group was forced to retreat when grenades began pouring down the stairs.

The explosions continued to mount. Wolves were killed and one of the researchers was badly wounded. Dietrich tried to throw a grenade back, but as he grabbed the grenade it exploded destroying the ‘healing device’ on his hand and burning its metal into his skin.

The stairs were, for the moment, a death trap of exploding grenades and the underground structure wasn’t taking it well. Two of the researchers yelled that Sean should help the third and ran towards the explosions… Sean not really knowing what else to do with the broken woman obeyed her request to share one of the vials inside the satchel. A blinding blue glow enveloped the two of them and when it faded she was climbing to her feet and Sean was falling, her wounds closing and identical ones opening on him.

She pushed past a worried and suspicious Pierre to join her colleagues who, were doing something to the ground only somewhat visible though the smoke of explosions. Suddenly, from the ground a huge hand emerged, and grabbed one of the researchers, she was tossed into the mouth of the head that followed the arm up. Another researcher was grabbed screaming by inky black tentacles coming from another beast emerging from the ground.

As the ogre pulled itself free from the shimmering hole in the ground, ripping the stairs apart, collapsing part of the ceiling and creating havoc for the Castilians above (only discernable by their curse laced shouting) the surviving researcher, the woman who’d shared a potion with Sean, made a break for it. She made it only feet before she too was grabbed by the black tentacles of the 2nd beast, but thanks Hendrick’s accuracy with thrown daggers, she managed to free herself and re-join the party.

The grenades had stopped, and the released monsters were going to town on the Castillians, but there was no longer a way out. The party was backing away, when the now familiar sound of Dame Serpent’s ring transporter made them all turn ready to fight. When the rings cleared, Dame Serpent wasn’t there, instead her Vallet was. The man, badly injured and barely standing, suggested that they all might like to leave the underground deathtrap.

The far-side of the ring transporter was Dame Serpent, better known as Lady Chevalier de Arnauld’s basement.

The Valet sat in the corner and died a quiet death, while the party tended to each other’s injuries. Sean was passed out and the final researcher and Dietrich (despite his injured hand) went to work on him. Long lost Agustin was tied up in the basement, his rifle’s bayonet drenched in the Valet’s blood. The decision was made not to free him, as it became increasingly clear he was under Dame Serpent’s control.

When the party was finally all standing, they realized the Valet had died. The said their thanks to his body and prepared to return to Pierre’s home. Staff in the house, surprised to have uninvited guests emerge from the basement told the party that the Lord and Lady were out, having headed to the Emperor’s Dressing for the morning. Injured as they might be, the party resolved to intercede in whatever Dame Serpents plans might be with the Emperor.

A untimely flashback!

As the party bathed, dressed and prepared to head to the palace, they pondered back to their last encounter with a new and unknown magic similar to Dame Serpents power.

On the road to Charouse, a few days after the party’s initial encounter with felix-du-lierre-vallee the party encountered something well beyond any of their experiences.

The piece of the road that the party was on seemed dangerous to [[:Thomas the Hawk]], who went to scout ahead. When he did, a sudden flash of light somehow took him away, right in front of the entire party’s eyes.

Confusion set in over the party but as they begain to investigate they realized that perhaps it was they who’d moved, not Thomas. Their Wagon trails only lead back about 20 feet, then nothing, and the scenery around had changed. A small village could be scene in a nearby valley.

Before the party could investigate they caught sight of a Castillian military column coming their way… odd for Northern Montaigne during the war. The party decides to play themselves off as Merchants.

Their ruse works well, the Castillians don’t harass the party, but they do seem to be under the impression that they are somewhere in Southern Castille, further adding to the parties theory, that they’ve been transported somehow.

Things are going well until Sean notices that one of the lieutenants is someone he knows, Content Not Found: ferdinand-the-bull. He also catches sight of Sean, and begins fuming. He stops with a few of his men at the end of the Column to give the party gruff. Dietrich tries to continue with the ruse but Sean takes some verbal pot-shots at him. Ferdinand doesn’t respond to Sean and eventually passes.

The party heads down into the Village, which seems to have been built by contractors from every culture they know, and some they don’t. In the center of town is a pile of dead bodies. A scuffle can be heard from one of the buildings and the party rushes in to find a lady fighting a flesh beast thingie with a knife and frying pan.

After the Beast is dealt with, the lass introduces herself as Content Not Found: molly. She explains to the party that this is something of a temporal crossroads, where most people pass though and some stay to live.

Molly has seen Thomas, in fact he’s been around for quite a while (though he’s not a permanent resident yet). In fact, he’s been with and helping Ferdinand, but they’d been gone for a few days now, and she assumed they’d left the crossroads. She explains that the party may leave when their road ‘shows up’ but what that road will be, no one knows.

Apparently staying to live means that each night, should you fall you regenerate, and by that evening the pub Molly runs is busy. Various members spend time exploring and socalizing.

Pierre discovers that he has been here before… in his personal future, but the current past. And he discovers a blooded box he left behind hidden.

Sean discovers a picture Molly has taken (she’s apparently from the 30’s) of his parents, who seemed to have come here sometime in their lifetime. Sean also allows her to take his picture and he tells her his story as a form of payment for her hospitality.

Hendrich finds a resident Rune Mage and asks for a runned Dagger, offering any price.

Detrich sees a tower off in the distance and realizes that it’s the party’s ‘road’ and rallies the party, but Sean is left behind, busy with Molly getting his picture taken.

Sean catches up to the rest of the group at the base of the tower where they’re fighting the skeletons of Castillian soldiers. The party dispatches them and moves up the tower to discover Thomas, Ferdinand and something that looks somewhat akin a succubus.

Ferdinand begins to gloat at their imminent destruction, that will be aided by their friend Thomas, but Hendrich realizes that he’s wearing a large ruby necklace that seems to be tied to the Succubus. A knife separates the stone from Ferdinand, and suddenly he weakens and the Succubus becomes human-like with angel wings.

Thomas begins to regain control of himself as Sean and Pierre grab at the ruby. When they do, they freeze… seeing a vision of the Bargin for Power from the Syrenth. But this vision differs from common lore; in the vision the woman (with wings) is there asking for power as well, and getting it.

Back in the present, Detrich elects to separate Ferdinand from his head (Sean had explained that we as a bad guy!). Sean and Pierre come out of their psihic wammy and face the woman.

She admits it’s her that they saw bargining for power. But she’d been captured and held in the ruby crystal for centuries. (AS PERRETCON:) Pierre loses hold of the crystal and drops it, perhaps bumped by Ferdinand during his final moments.

Freed the woman explains that she wanted power because she was unable to have children… but even with the power, she could only have children with a very specific line of men. She has, after a thousand years found that in Thomas, and she intends to take him.

Detrich offers his family name and protection to her children with Thomas, and she accepts receiving a magical mark on his arm as the bargain is sealed.

Sean argues for Thomas’s free will and choice and opposes her in general. Eventually Thomas comes-to and is able to weigh in on the matter, convincing her that she needs to first prove that she’s not the monster Sean describes before he will mate with her.

She elects to give up on life, and asks Detrich to take he head. He does.

Later that evening back in the pub, Pierre and Sean have a big argument about the incident. Pierre wondering if Sean thinks that all magic users are evil and will stab him in the back.

Hendrich meets again with the Rune Mage and receives a rune knife and brand. The brand compels him to serve the family of the rune mage, and the rune on the knife, sadly can’t be used by a non-runemage TRICKERY!!! Hendrich curses all Vesten!

Montaigne court at it's best.

We join our band of stalwart adventures just after leaving the throws of our coveted lady serpents attentions. Naturally, as to be expected when courting gutter trash, our heroes emerge unto daybreak smelling of sewer and covered in filth. Upon realizing the time, our heroes nearly retched. After all, it was almost time for them to attend court and very few hearty adventurers have the stomach for that. So they made their way to pierres home.

Upon a thorough scrub and a few fashion emergencies, out merry men were once again off with little call for sleep. Shortly thereafter, our gang arrived at the sun palace to find it with slightly less grounds to speak of. It appears our heroes gallant galavantings had left their mark!

In honest shock, at placement if nothing else, our well bred vagabonds were ushered in and announced to mix with the gentiles of the montaigne court. Once inside the gang quickly, perhaps even haphazardly, developed a strategy and set to. Young henrick began charming the high nobles with his sharp mind and quick wit, while noble pierre began to spread rumors about the dastsrdly du arnolds. Meanwhile, the stark Dietrich gave a stirring performance of an original peice to honor the king.

Seizing upon the opportunity, sean took lady serpent by the hand and danced. While he was unable to glean any new information from her, he did manage to scare the ever loving piss out of her which is almost as good.

Once the performance was done, and the performers bloodied from the effort, the dressing of the king ceremony was set to begin. Only moments before the king arrived strange men began to filter into the audience chambers. Moments after the king was in place, nobles began to drop, falling unconscious as a noxious odor pressed in from the candles on the edge of the room. Our heroes, caught on quickly but were divided. Some believed it was not their place to interfere in a revolution, even if this was an assassination attempt. Some however, leaped into action routing the dastardly foe with the help of the kings own lightning guard.

As the smoke cleared and the victors emerged, Dietrich presented himself to the king. After being offered all the honors within the kings power the stubborn lord refused them, insulting the wicked king and questioning his ability to lead his people. For all his valiant efforts he won himself an exile but his friends stood by, well about half did anyway and were ordered to be gone within the day.

Sean, Big Thom and the ladies, having negotiated Detrich’s exile rather then execution, stayed at the palace for lunch to discuss with Le Emperor the matter of a ‘Dame Serpente’ operating illegally within the city… much to the ‘joy’ of Lady Chevilerre de Arnold.

Meanwhile Detrich, Thomas, and Hendrich collected their things from Peirre’s family estate, and were picked up by the guard for escort out of town… or so they thought. When they departed the house they discovered the Captain of the contingent of guards to be none other then Charles du Burgandy. Charles did not escort them out of town, but instead brought them to a stronghold of the resistance.

The Serpents set their plan into motion.

in which, here comes a new challenger

We last left our heroes battered and beaten jostled about in a throng of upset common folk. As the party work there way through the crowd, another piece of du Arnolds dastardly plan is rolling into place. our heroes notice the 50’ clue from afar and redirect their attentions to stopping this profane weapon from being used. Hendricks explains how he can stop it cold and while the gang is weighing their options, he takes off down the side streets, Sean following at his heels. meanwhile Dietrich and Thomas rally the mob into a fervor and Thomas takes a nearly mortal shot while they draw attention from the vital portion of the gangs plan.

after some clever lying, and clever bribing, the two sneaks manage to secure a perfect position to attack the ring. Hendricks waits for the perfect shot and takes it, severing the rope cleanly and starting the dangerous process of bringing down the ring. unfortunately, the perfect shot came at precisely the wrong moment and, as the ring falls, our heroes realize that it is going to fall on them! darting into action, they manage to save the civilians as the house crashes down around them and as they pull themselves from the rubble, the rest of the party rejoins them with the incited surge of the angry mob.

as the group reconnects, they notice a strange man lying in the rubble of the caravan. before our heroes could question him, Sean notices the first cart in the caravan is still moving, its cargo unhindered! without a moment to lose, the group gallops off in hot pursuit.

deftly navigating the city in turmoil, the adventurers emerge in front of the carriage and begin to deal with its drivers. COMEPLETELYINTENTIONALY, Dietrich manages to “dismount” and “despoke” the carriage, managing to only get slightly run over in the process. Thomas broke his sword off in someones ass and Sean “kirked” his way to immortality while Hendricks casually picked off the pursuers.

unbeknownst to our heroes, the strange man from earlier had made his way back into the carriage to try his hand at disabling its contents. when the cart was overturned so was he, as is discovered. the caravan stopped, the group remounts and takes off into the night to rest, recuperate, and reintroduce themselves to an old acquaintance.

once safely away, the heroes question the strange man and realize he is the same rabid unwashed survivor saved from the prison beneath the palace. he goes by the name Verdandi and has studied the artifact in charuse for some number of months. though he seems slightly delirious, he would be an invaluable asset and the heroes agree to bring him along.

the gang takes some time to sleep, arising that night to discover a group of musketeers escorting the Dias to a riverboat under cover of darkness. as they prepare to intercept the surreptitious shipment, they realize they have been beaten to the punch by their old ally Annaka.

Hendrick doesn’t waste a moment, himself and the new asset verdandi slip away undetected to confront the figures on the boat. meanwhile the rest of the band of brigands formulate a plan to board. Hendrick tries to talk to Lady Annaka, discovering that she is a mercenary it becomes clear she will not cooperate when she politely offers to kill him, free of charge.

in that moment the rest of the party hurdles onto the scene, taking their horses from the pier to the barge effortlessly. COMPLETELYINTENTIONALLY: Dietrich cunningly decides to direct his horse into a headlong tackle of riverboat; using this to mask his presence from the imminent enemy.

after some clever bartering and smart swordplay, the mercenaries are defeated and kicked off the boat. annaka takes the opportunity to sink the barge, plunging through the deck in bearform and sending our heroes and their prize into the drink.

almost everyone is rescued by nearby boat, the good captain o’bbrian being the exception. once aboard, our heroes quickly discover this boat was intended to carry the other piece to the ancient weapon and in a few hours, the same musketeers from the carravan were to come aboard and wait for orders. With a little luck and alot of lying, the galant gang was able to get away again.

as the heroes get ready to pat themselves on the back, sean points out that the job isn’t over yet. the artifact is still dangerous and will be back in the hands of the villainous monsieur du’arnold soon. verdandi then takes this moment to produce his own days works, revealing to the group his deft dismantlement of the drowned dias. satisfied that the day is saved, our heroes make plans to leave.